Celebrity Reflection Review

5.0 / 5.0
1,979 reviews

Overall excellent cruise on Celebrity Reflection

Review for the Eastern Mediterranean Cruise on Celebrity Reflection

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Additional details

Sail Date: May 2017
Cabin: Concierge Class 2

My now husband and I selected this cruise by luck. We were actually booked on a Norwegian cruise but when Norwegian decided to change every port on the itinerary, we canceled it and found this one. Since we were celebrating our honeymoon, we splurged and booked a balcony room. This was our first Celebrity cruise and we have to say, it lived up to its potential! To start, we arrived by shared private shuttle probably around 1pm. The shuttle pulled right up to the terminal, our bags were checked, and we were off down the terminal hall. It was a very quick and easy walk. Once we arrived in the check-in area, we were pleased to see that there were NO LINES! WHAT? The check-in process was quick and painless as well. Total time between getting out of the shuttle and getting on the ship was no more than 20 minutes (unlike Carnival where we had to wait 2 hours at a boarding gate).

Once on board, we found the ships layout to be very easy to navigate and the decor very interesting and beautiful. One thing we noticed throughout the cruise is that Celebrity is constantly working on the ship to keep it in shape. One day they were going around touching up the paint and another day (in port) one of the jacuzzis was closed off so they could sand and stain the wood around it. Everything was kept very pristine! On that note, I know a lot of cruise lines have hand sanitizers all over the ship but I liked how Celebrity would keep attendants strategically placed to offer a squirt of sanitizer... when getting onboard, when entering the Oceanview Cafe, etc. Better safe than sorry!! The public bathroom spaces (although at times were hard to locate) were also kept very clean with warm towels for hand drying. Our stateroom was also very beautiful and well-kept. Our stateroom attendant, Davian, had our names down by the 2nd day! The service was another great part of this cruise. Everyone is very friendly making sure to say good morning/evening, etc when passing by. We dined in 4 of the specialty restaurants: Tuscan Grille, Murano, Lawn Club Grill, and Qsine. I've listed them in order of favorite to least. The food in all 4 was excellent but we decided we probably wouldn't go back to Lawn Club or Qsine. Just wasn't for us. That steak in Tuscan Grille was perfection and I would definitely go back for it! Another really great aspect of this cruise was the disembarkation process. WOW!! Again, comparing Celebrity and Carnival are like comparing fine wine and engine oil. =\ Getting off a Carnival ship, it was like a herd of people all trying to accomplish the same goal of getting off the ship with some of those people just shoving without so much as an "I'm sorry." I had to elbow some girl who flopped herself onto me to get me to move... and there was no where to go! Not with Celebrity. Hello personal space!!! Each cabin class had a spacious designated area where they could wait to get off the ship. But mostly it was the option guests had to disembark any time in a 3 hour window making the process very smooth. We were even able to use the elevators! Overall, I give this cruise line 5 stars. They really know what they are doing!

On the downside... just a couple of things I wish they would improve. Since we were splurging, we decided to do their GoBest program to get the Premium Drink Package, Unlimited Internet Access, Prepaid Gratuities, and $300 Onboard Credit. (Side note, the Premium drink package is the way to go!) Plus we pre-purchased a specialty restaurant dining package. For about the first 3 days onboard, it was practically impossible to go anywhere without being hounded about buying a package. Sure you can just walk by and politely say "No thanks" but then again, when you're on vacation, how many times do you really want to be pestered about this stuff? If I want it, I'll buy it. Otherwise, leave me alone. The food was another area leaving something to be desired. The food in the main dining room was average. On cruises, I like to branch out from the norm and order some of the interesting things cruise chefs come up with... On this cruise, it's better to stick to the basics. Too many of my meals in the MDR were bleh while my husband's were good. Stick to the basics! Also, not sure why but not all the bars/restaurants carry the same wine selection. I just found that odd. It took us a while but we finally figured out which bars we needed to get to in order to get the wine we wanted. My final gripe is one that I think applies to a lot of cruise ships. We live in a tech-oriented world and cruise lines seem to struggle to keep up with that. Celebrity has developed one really great app, Cruise Lingo, but this isn't their main app. It's a great app for traveling and I highly recommend downloading it if traveling internationally. However, their main app, once downloaded, only crashed over and over again. I never got it to work and finally deleted it. It would be GREAT if cruise lines could develop one app where guests can see a variety of info: 1. The daily itinerary (goodbye wasted paper in the stateroom); 2. Daily menu's for the dining areas so guests can pick ahead of time where they want to eat; 3. Link the stateroom charges to the guests account on the app so guests can log in and see their charges at a glance; 4. Maybe even link the onboard photos to guests' accounts so they can see and/or purchase them from the app; 5. List the excursions available for purchase and maybe even allow purchasing through the app! There are endless possibilities!

Cabin Review

Concierge Class 2

Cabin C2

This room was amazing in terms of comfort and size. The balcony is very close to the navigational bridge so at times, the captain and crew can be seen navigating into and away from port. Even though the room is on the 10th floor, sandwiched between other stateroom floors, there was an abnormal amount of banging around every morning around 5:30am. I had a really hard time determining if it was the crew going up and down the service stairs nearby or if the people above us were just loud, early birds but it was very frustrating. We use a white noise app in lieu of having a floor fan and this pounding could be heard over that! Another small disadvantage of this room is that when the small rudders are being used to move the ship in port, the vibrations can really be felt from this room. I thought that since we were so high on the decks, we wouldn't have that issue. All this to say that while room 1010 was beautiful, next time we're going to book a mid-ship room and hope the people above us are quiet walkers.

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